Year: 1957
Category: Legal drama.
Director: Sidney Lumet.
Cast: Henry Fonda, Lee J. Cobb, Jack Warden, E.G. Marshall, Martin Balsam, Ed Begley, John Fiedler, Robert Webber, Jack Klugman, George Voskovec, Joseph Sweeney, Edward Binns, Billy Nelson, John Savoca, Rudy Bond, James Kelly.
In New York an 18-year-old is accused of murdering his own father, all the evidence is against him, the facts were presented and now the jury, a group of 12 men in a room, must decide if there is reasonable doubt or no, if there is not, the accused must be sentenced to death.
11 of the men in the room firmly believe that the young man is guilty of the crime of which he is accused, but one of them, the jury number 8, is not sure and decides to put everything that the other 11 men think they know about the case in doubt, each fact, each witness, each evidence. Is he guilty or not? It is a question with an answer that these 12 men should try to find despite being flogged by heat, exhaustion and impatience.
The direction of Sidney Lumet is impeccable, creating one of the most important films of its kind despite developing the whole story within a single location, here there are no detective investigations, corruption of the judge or lawyers, nor is there a plot secondary, there is only 12 men in a room discussing a strictly legal issue: the result is fantastic.
The performances are really fabulous, each of the actors does their work brilliantly, each one defines their respective character in a way that gives much more depth than the script confers on them. And it is true, Henry Fonda and especially Lee J. Cobb do a magnificent interpretation that steals all the attention, however, Martin Balsam, John Fiedler, EG Marshall, Jack Klugman, Edward Binns, Jack Warden, Joseph Sweeney, Ed Begley , George Voskovec and Robert Webber do a very good job too. Each character has its moment of importance and the actors did the best job possible.
Since 1957, the year in which it was released, the film has been the inspiration for plays, other similar films and even remakes, however, as on every occasion no matter how good the other works are, I will always recommend see the original film first, luckily, unlike what happened to me with Psycho or Dial M for Murder, with 12 Angry Men I could see the original first, and my feeling was satisfactory.
If you have not seen it yet, I invite you to see it and if you already did and want more, you can rent or buy the movie or Reginald Rose's book on Amazon.
